10 things we need to stop talking about in 2013

I’m starting to get a sick feeling every time I walk past a Target or Walmart. And I flinch at TV commercials pushing new toys, gadgets and jewelry. Yep, we must be reaching the end of 2012.

It probably comes as no surprise: I’m a humbug kinda guy, at least when it comes to the retail feeding frenzy that starts in, oh, October and ends somewhere around January.

I do like the whole resolution thing, though. So, here are 10 SEO-related things we should all resolve to stop talking about in 2013:

Which links are OK.

The only links that are OK now are the ones you get cause someone, you know, wants to link to you. If you cant figure that out, leave “link building” to the professionals.

Rankings.

I know we never will. But I sure as hell wish we would.

Feedburner.

Alas, I knew you well. This service is on life support, and bound to be dead before 2013 is over. Find alternatives. Maybe Mailchimp’s RSS to E-mail tool. Maybe roll your own. But Feedburner isn’t much longer for this world.

Inbou-.

Never mind. I didn’t say it. Plus, we’ve all bought into it already, so it’s too late.

The death of free Google Shopping feeds.

They’re gone. Google will now seek more ways to extract money from us. Just don’t expect the free ride to return. Ever.

The privacy implications of analytics cookies.

Puh-leeze. If you want to worry about privacy, worry about some moron leaving a laptop w/ 100,000 social security numbers on it lying around in a bar (not a 100% true story, but close enough). Analytics cookies are a tiny, tiny hair on the humungous, stinky butt of the privacy invasions we endure every day.

Who bought links, or sold links, or whatever.

Google is sitting back, making popcorn and enjoying the show while the search community rips itself to pieces over manipulative linking. Don’t worry about the other guys. Focus on what you’re doing.

That one edge case site that outranks yours in spite of being a total piece of crap.

If our own sites received 10% of the time and mental energy we expend whining about that site that outranks us, we’d be billionaires. I expect to stick to this resolution for at least 2 weeks into 2013.

Mobile search.

How many of you type a search into a mobile device, or look at a search result? Raise your hands. Whatever. Consumers don’t use their phones to do traditional search. Learn to leverage implicitly search-driven tools, like Siri and Google Now, instead of search results.

Whatever the latest search detractor said.

Every time we fall upon the latest “SEO is dead” author like rabid weasels, we give them huge press coverage. I know it’s hard to resist, but can we make it to March, at least, without stoking someone’s authority?

With that, I’m off to start my holiday shopping. And happy humbug to all of you.